(Wo)man vs Food: He Made Me a Sandwich

Luke, Kaylie, and I were discussing this on Friday afternoon as we sat atop the “Grand Canyon at the top of San Francisco,” (aka Corona Heights in the upper Castro) with a 360 view of the city by the bay as the wind blew our hair and our napkins into a distracting whirlwind

Home <3 and a gorgeous view, n'est-ce-pas? Thanks for discovering this Luke!

Of course, we were devouring sandwiches (and not any sandwiches…just wait) as we questioned how anyone could possibly be against the meal rubric made famous by a British Lord several decades/centuries back.

It can be portable- scavenged anywhere on the go and it can be an explosive mess of aioli-drenched lettuce particles and soggified crust requiring several handfuls of napkins and persistent lavender-soap-hand-washing for the next week to vacate the sandwich scent from the fingertips

You get the point.

So what kind of sandwiches were we eating exactly? Well, first of all, are any of you familiar with the infamous Travel Channel show Man vs Food?

At Ike’s, you select the type of sandwich you want, choose the bread you want it on (they’re famous for their Dutch Crunch) and each sandwich is slathered with their secret dirty special sauce and if you are so inclined you can toss on some add-ons ranging from innocent cucumbers to jalapeno poppers and fried mozzarella sticks. Then, every sandwich comes with a free bag of fusion chips and a caramel apple lollipop (REMEMBER THOSE?!)

Cool. And there’s no indoor seating and a line that stretches out onto the street. Yup, you know this place is good :)

Alors, with hundreds of sandwiches it was a vair vair difficult decision to make, but LUCKILY Luke and I had our eyes on the same two finalists so we decided to get em both and split them. Alors, let me present the glory:

And here is the photo from Ike’s site so you can see the innards a lil more clearly:

Oh mon Dieu this was absolute HEAVEN! First of all, Ike’s gets an A+ for using halal chicken, second whatever they do to that chicken when they toss it on the bread makes it all the more heavenly. Oh and in regard to the avocado, I swear they use an entire one in the sandwich, no skimping there

Apparently, most people only eat half an Ike’s sandwich as a meal…but come on you know my appetite is better than that

Woahhhh Tiffy blew me away indeed, the pesto just added such a complimentary zing to all the other cheesy meaty veggielicious crunch-encasement going on in this sando. Luke and I made the right choice for our two halves for sure!

As for Kaylie, she chose one of the vegetarian sandwiches which also looked like a glory-fest all on it’s own:

Post-sandwich demolition, we all got out our caramel apple lollipops (sorry no pic, taking photos with a janky-functioning Blackberry touchscreen while simultaneously having pesto dripping on your hands AND the wind blowing is quite the task) and started going to town on those suckers

Plus I love how LONG those lollies last, I was sucking on mine for the entire drive back to Marin. Nothing screams San Francisco summer like non-ghostriding to Zion I across the Golden Gate with a lollipop stick coming out the corner of your mouth.

I’m definitely coming back to Ike’s though. Definitely.

I was full though, so full that this was my dinner (and i should add it was consumed ten hours later)

As usual though I was an indecisive Ingrid and managed to swirl all ten flavours into that cup (Yellow cake batter, peanut butter, chocolate cordial, vanilla, chocolate, coffee, tart, pomegranate tart, some other tart, and yet some other tart). Dinner of the champions, and yes I know I was just hatin’ on fro yo a few days ago (because ice cream really is better), but I had just consumed an Adam Richman-status sandwich for lunch so aerated low-fat colourful dairy was perfectly suitable at the time.

Have you ever eaten at Ike’s Place?What’s your favourite type of sandwich? You can be as creative as you want!

Oh my, this looks like quite an ideal place for me! I lovee sandwiches, but have been missing out on them for years! During the worst times of my disordered eating, any foods that went on sandwiches “scared” me- bread, eats, condiments… pretty much only the veggies were safe, how wonderful.
Now I enjoy a big ole turkey or chicken sandwich with extra tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, honey mustard and ketchup :) Oh and I need to put chips on them for extra crunch

Oh girl…I heart sammy’s so much, but rarely eat them :( Growing up I would LOVE sandwiches on French Bread or Sourdough with Dijon, Left Over Chicken, Lettuce, Avocado, Black Olives and Mayo. Now I would eat that and explode!!

there is a man v. food restaurant right here in dc where adam ate like a 60 gallon (i love to exaggerate) milkshake and a roast beef sandwich. i forget what it’s called? i would actually love to go to the restaurant where he ate the RIDIC HUGE OMELET (idk where/what the restaurant was either).

I NEED Ike in my life…any sandwich with avocado is good in my books! My current favorite combo is turkey with spinach (or lettuce), cucumber, hummus+avocado. And I’m glad I’m not the only one who goes to town when fro yo is self-serve!